1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to devices and methods for constructing buildings and more particularly to electrical raceways for assembling buildings such as health-care facilities.
2. Related Art
Building systems for constructing buildings are known in the art and typically include various raw materials that are assembled on-site at a building construction location. A contractor or construction firm manages delivery of desired building components such as wood, bricks, tile, flooring, roofing, electrical hardware, plumbing hardware, etc. Once the raw building materials for each stage of construction are delivered to a construction location, a team of laborers from various trades who manually assemble the various components of the building, beginning with a frame and foundation. Additionally skilled workers are brought in for each stage of construction. The current method for the construction of buildings relies heavily on skilled labor at the job site. For example, electricians are employed to assemble and install the electrical hardware, plumbers are employed to assemble and install the plumbing system, roofers are employed to assemble a roof, etc. Furthermore, the current method of construction is very sequential in that each skilled trade must be sequenced to perform their work at various time points during the construction process. The performance of various tasks is critically dependent on the completion of other tasks. A process that places less reliance on the critical pathways of the traditional construction process will result in lower cost and shorter times for the completion of a construction project. For example, in the traditional approach to construction the electrical, plumbing, and duct rough-in cannot be installed until the stud walls and roof deck are installed. A method which pre-fabricates portions of the stud-walls and overhead electrical, plumbing, and duct rough-in will allow these rough-in activities to proceed independently of the erection of stud walls or roof decks at the construction site.
In a single building project such as a hospital, many rooms include the similar features regardless of the layout of the room. For example, patient rooms in a hospital typically include electrical outlets, plumbing fixtures, data connections, and outlets/drains for various medical liquids and gases. In many applications, considerable time and expense could be saved if such rooms or parts of rooms could be pre-assembled off-site as pre-fabricated sub-assemblies and installed and connected to each other at the construction location.
Additionally, many of the individual building components for healthcare facilities are common, regardless of geographic location or facility size. In conventional systems, such components are traditionally installed on-site using raw materials. However, considerable time and expense could also be saved if such components could be pre-assembled offsite as pre-fabricated sub-assemblies and joined with other components at the construction location.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities have complex power distribution requirements. These include the provision of normal power (not on emergency backup), critical branch power (backed up by an emergency power source), life safety branch power (also backed up by an emergency power source, but fed from a separate Automatic Transfer Switch), equipment branch power (to separate equipment power from other normal and emergency power circuits), and low voltage circuits. Every patient room, operating room, procedure room, laboratory work area, and imaging room in a hospital requires a branch circuit providing power from all of these power sources and types.
The cost of installing these branch circuits is significant and time consuming. It is not uncommon for the cost of electrical power wiring to equal at least 20% of the construction budget for a new hospital.
Additionally, the face of each power outlet is typically labeled with the name of the electrical distribution panel and the circuit number within that panel. Conduit and junction boxes are frequently labeled with a color code as to the type of power (e.g. critical branch, normal, etc.) but are often not labeled with the specific panel and circuit number, making it difficult to trace a fault in a particular circuit.
What is needed, then, are improvements in devices and methods for assembling buildings, and in particularly, for assembling health-care facilities.